Republican pollster Bob Moore, with perhaps a touch of GOP scorn, complained that Lake Oswego is now dominated by an "uppity, well-to-do, West Coast, liberal-left crowd."

Apart from the "liberal-left" label, I'm not sure what city Moore thought he was talking about. Lake Oswego has been one of the more monied, exclusive communities in the state for a long time. And I'm pretty sure it's always been on the "West Coast."

iPhone Workers of the World Unite!: Another day, another conference that I should be at. I got a LinkedIn request the other day from Dan Spirn, who was the other presenter on the panel of the first conference I spoke at, the 1997 Macromedia UCON, which brought up some old memories, but it ain't happening any more.

I pointed out that a passive web page isn't exactly the kind of bullying, abusive behavior you'd associate with the verb "hectoring," but naturally there were a number of mouth-breathers thumping their chests about how they were all imposed on by bike lanes and stuff. In a follow-up comment after someone said "Consider biking to school. In the fog. When it's 33 degrees. And the road is wet" I mentioned that I used to do just that for miles through junior high and high school (I neglected to mention that I did it for a few years after that as well). I think the thing that got me banned was a closing statement I made where I equated the hyperbolic claim of hectoring came from the same part of the brain as the claims of Republicans that anything they don't like is being shoved down their throats.

Didn't realize I was banned until I tried to post a reply to another comment, by which time the biking story was scrubbed.

First, the discussion wasn't about "being active", it was specifically about "bicycling".

Actually, the überdiscussion was about non-car transportation. The link Jack referenced includes alternate forms of getting around from walking to public transit to carpools. Not just bicycles.

Actually, the car part is exactly what's happening all over the world through congestion taxes, tolls, fees, reduction in auto access, and other policies.

All that and no mention of the price of gasoline? Gas was an astounding $2/gal. by the end of 2000, after a year of dizzying rises. According to the Pew Center the public paid far more attention to stories about the cost of gasoline than they did to the attack on the USS Cole, the recall of Firestone tires, Elian Gonzalez, or the presidential election. In that order.